How are nominees for AOM selected?
Members who participate in a selected gallery are nominated by our Moderators, and Admins. Artist of the Month is highlighting a talented Renderosity artist that has been nominated by the site team and voted by the community. Recognition is given to this member for their collection of works for that year. Since we only select one AOM per month, it is not about their works for that particular month. Instead, it is about highlighting a talented artist's works for that year and they are recognized during that month. What criteria do the Mods/Admins use to select their nominations?
They are asked to take into consideration the following criteria:

An AOM nominee should have in their gallery a body of work that is created using the software/genre for the month in question.

There should be more than just a sprinkling of that type of image, demonstrating a good foundation in and mastery of the software/genre.

Several elements should be balanced and considered when selecting a nominee -- things like technical expertise, mood, message, design and content should be taken into consideration.

The nominee's gallery should have fairly recent postings to it. (There are quite a few members who are no longer active and therefore no longer available for the follow up interview.)

New:An artist can only be AOM for one time during the year. Those artists who have won this title during the past five years will not be included in the voting for a new AOM.

New: Coordinators [as they are volunteers] will be eligible for AOM nomination for 2006 AOM, and, are no longer part of the AOM selection process.

Moderators, and Admins are not eligible for Artist of the Month!

Each month, we highlight a different gallery or galleries from which the nominees are selected. This gives a larger variety of members an opportunity to participate in the AOM. The 2006 Artist of the Month schedule:

January - 2D

February - 3D Studio Max, Lightwave

March – Bryce

April - Cinema 4D/ Rhino 3D

May – Fractal

June - Mixed Medium, Digital Comics

July - Terragen, ArtMatic, WorldBuilder, Mojoworld

August - Photography

September - Poser, Daz|Studio

October - Writers

November - Vue

December - All Galleries not previously listed

What happens after the Community votes each month?
Once the voting has ended, an announcement on the front page is published until we receive the interview from the winner. This is also announced in our monthly newsletter. After the artist has been interviewed, the article is published on the front page for the entire month. What is AOY?
At the end of the year, one of the Artists of the Month will be selected for the title of Artist of the Year. This is voted on by the Mods and Admins of the site.